Rouhani: Poor Adherence to Health Protocols Alarming

As a third wave of Covid-19 infections hit Iran, President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday expressed concern over dwindling adherence to health protocols designed to curb virus transmissions.

During the National Coronavirus Taskforce meeting, Rouhani stressed the need for the public to strictly follow guidelines, noting that “the observance of health protocols has dropped from 80% to 60%”, President.ir reported.

The president described the 20% drop in compliance with coronavirus-related safety measures as “bad news”.

The Iranian government’s main strategy to tackle the deadly pandemic is based on the implementation of coronavirus regulations to keep businesses open while minimizing transmission rates.

“If this trend continues, we will witness a rise in Covid-19 cases and later on in fatalities,” Rouhani said.

On Friday, Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi announced that the continuation of the current trend will push the death toll to as high as 45,000, which is presently over 24,000.

“A coronavirus explosion has occurred in some cities,” Harirchi said, pointing out that daily hospitalizations in the northwestern city of Tabriz has gone from under 40 to nearly 160, and from 10 per day to 160 in the central city of Qom, the first epicenter of the respiratory illness in Iran.

Referring to the zoning of the country into white, yellow and red based on the extent of coronavirus spread, Harirchi said, “Color classifications hold no meaning any longer. The whole of the country is on red alert.”

According to the health authority, the number of deaths could drop if people’s movements decline by half and adherence to the mandatory facemask wearing order rose to 95%.

Infected Until Proven Healthy

In Saturday’s meeting of the taskforce, Rouhani told the public to assume they have caught Covid-19 with first signs of the viral infection.

“From now on, if any symptom appears, we should see it as Covid-19. You should only go to work if the test comes back negative,” the president said.

Payam Tabarsi, the head of infectious disease ward at Masih Daneshvari Hospital, also said any respiratory symptom means a coronavirus infection and the cold should not be even considered a possible diagnosis.

“Individuals must self-isolate as soon as any symptom such as sneezing, fever and fatigue develops,” he added.

Over 2,845 tested positive for Covid-19 within the past 24-hour period, spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, was quoted as saying by ISNA on Saturday.

The new patients took the national tally of cases to 419,043, Lari said.

Some 40% of the newly detected infections required hospitalization.

Daily deaths due to the coronavirus outbreak reached 166, bringing the toll to 24,118, Lari said.

According to the health official, more than 357,000 have either recovered or been discharged from hospitals and 3,890 are in critical condition.

Iran has administered 3.7 million diagnostic tests so far.

Global coronavirus cases surpassed 30.7 million and fatalities reached 958,000.